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Information on Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR), Nicotine, and safer alternatives to using combustible cigarettes

We aim to provide information for Advocates, PolicyMakers, LawMakers, Interested members of the public (remember you are the 'public' in public health), Scientists and Researchers, Health Workers and Medical Doctors indeed anyone who would like reliable information. Most of the time that links directly to the original science, we aim to provide useful summaries/comment where possible as a guide, we encourage you to read the full paper if you wish.

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Tobacco Harm Reduction News

The Latest News on THR, Vaping and Safer Nicotine

Here you will find the latest news and links to news about all nicotine products, regulations, etc.

UK Vape TAX: What to do!

Nicotine tax examples

LONDON, March 6, 2024: The Chancellor has today approved a tax on vaping liquids which is ill-thought-out and will cost thousands of lives.

• The tax on vaping liquids is damaging in principle and in practice.
• The UK government will undo its former position as a world-leader in reducing the prevalence of smoking.
• Government is now fighting itself by taxing the very products it is urging smokers to try.
• The government is clearly regulating from a position of ignorance and must urgently consult with consumer and public health experts.

The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) is exasperated that the government is systematically dismantling world-leading policy which was an example to the rest of the world on how to utilise innovative harm reduction approaches to rapidly reduce the toll of smoking-related disease.

Following the ill-judged decision to ignore public health experts who warned of a ban on single use vapes deterring people who smoke from switching to products which could save their lives, it has now undermined its own admirable Swap to Stop campaign by vowing to increase the tax on the very products it is urging smokers to try. Furthermore, the design of the tax shows that government ministers have no understanding of how the devices help to reduce smoking prevalence.

Government is now fighting itself. It has been recently reported that 400,000 vaping products – the first of one million promised by the government last year - will be handed out free of charge under the Swap to Stop campaign, while the Chancellor is taxing them on the pretext that they are harmful.

NNA Chair, Louise Ross, an expert on smoking cessation for nearly two decades comments, “putting a higher tax on stronger e-liquids completely misses the point that the more heavily dependent smokers will need stronger liquid to stay smoke-free. This will include people with poor mental health, people on benefits, people living in disadvantaged communities and those with challenging lives. Higher taxes will keep them smoking.

— New Nicotine Alliance, News email, https://mailchi.mp/nnalliance/media-release-a-tax-on-vaping-liquids

THR X Community notes

A great way for the informed consumer to share experience and to call out the issues with tweets we see regularly. Hints, tips, and links for information, how to join on Twitter, etc. Please help out if you can!

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How to explore:

See the List of all pages, or use the Search page (Tip: add ~ to the end of e.g. colour~ to find alternate (international) spellings) or the search box in the top right corner.
There is also a list of FAQ Questions that may be interesting. And a lists of FAQ questions from various other organizations,
There is this list of categories Guide to Main Categories, find your local vaping organisation List of orgs

What is this?

This Wiki has been assembled by a team of keen volunteers, free of funding from any industry (tobacco or otherwise) source. If you would like to contribute to the expansion and evolution of this resource, please see the how to contribute section below. Remember: respected sources only.

We are looking for volunteers to translate the wiki into different languages, please sign up for an account if you can help. We can be contacted at the email below, please include your username when contacting us.

A few important questions are answered here without having to access the main menu:

Safe or Safer? Briefly, nothing is absolutely safe, but as the products continually evolve they become safer. Nicotine Replacement Therapy products such as patches, gums, sprays, and inhalers are substantially less than 1% as risky as smoking. Non-pharmaceutical nicotine products can also pose a fraction of the risk of smoking, e.g. Snus (approximately 1%), E-Cigarettes (less than 5%), and Heat not Burn (approximately 10%). These estimates become ever more refined as increasing numbers of research studies are published. Beyond the debate about nicotine tied to smoking and products used to quit smoking, science is also looking at potential therapeutic benefits of nicotine.

Links here for debunking myths Myth Busting provides links to info on anti nicotine claims and how to correct them.

Quit Aid The most frequently-used method to quit tobacco is 'cold turkey', i.e. unaided, but this has a greater failure rate than perhaps all others. It is very difficult to attribute a precise figure towards popular quit methods such as NRT, Varenicline (various trade names), Allen Carr, hypnotherapy, snus etc., as the usual medical standard of proof, the Randomised Controlled Trial, doesn't really cover certain options such as e-cigarettes adequately (as choices of all various combinations of flavour choice, nicotine strength, and device type are impossible to include). However, a recent RCT demonstrated that e-cigarettes were twice as effective as NRT for cessation (probably an underestimate of real world results). Like who knew the Pez dispenser was a quit aid?

Health Improvements Virtually everyone who used a safer nicotine product to quit cigerettes completely experiences profound improvement in their health, e.g. improved breathing and cardiovascular benefits. This is possibly due to totally removing the previous inhalation of carbon monoxide from the tobacco cigarette. Asthma and COPD patients have shown great recovery, see Health Improvements

Commentary from respected sources Many governments around the world recognise that Safer Nicotine Products offer benefits, along with respected organisations such as Public Health England, Royal College of Physicians, Cochrane, and NASEM (US). See Also: Commentary from experts

Cost Savings Vast savings are experienced; this is quite underappreciated by some members of the general public. It would be a gross underestimate to state that a 50% reduction in spending would be experienced by anyone who completely switches. For some users who make their own liquids and manufacture their own coils, costs can be less than 1% of what they would have incurred when smoking.

Our DIY page lists details and has links to important safety information, particularly for those new to making their own liquid. It also provides basic information on safe operation of vaping devices.

Don't forget the list of List of all pages if you can't find what you are looking for, try the Search page

How to Contribute

Find your local vaping group or organisation here: List of Tobacco Harm Reduction and Vaping Groups, worldwide

Please sign up for an account, you will need to verify your email address, you can then start editing right away. Tips and tricks here. If you use a screen reader and e.g. captchas are a problem, please email us and we will accommodate where possible.

We are looking for volunteers to translate the wiki into different languages, please sign up for an account, if you can help.

If you already have an account, you should be able to promote yourself to a translator, click the link in the sidebar menu or TranslatorSignup. To do this requires a verified email address, that you have completed some (currently 3) edits elsewhere on the site, and your account is not brand new. If you have difficulty or would like to be promoted manually, please email us at info@safernicotine.wiki

We will accept documents if you prefer to write them in word (.doc(x)), or open document format (.odf) or PDF (.pdf). please include you name for attribution, unless you wish to remain anonymous. Please let you know any info you would like included for attribution etc. emails may be sent to the address above. We apologize, but it may take some time to add submitted information. Note: several people may monitor the email address please include a ref. to any previous communication so that we can find it. Thanks!

Looking for something to edit? Try Category:All stub articles for pages that need your input!

Or click any red link to create that page! Try searching and if there is no page already, you can create one from the search results page.

Get in touch

Please email info@safernicotine.wiki

Please do not email asking to use our page authors work, that right is already granted by our licence CC-BY-SA, see the link at the bottom of the page.

Twitter @SaferWiki

Maintenance

Please note Sunday from 10:00 to 21:00 the site will be undergoing maintenance, this will be kept to a minimum but it might be slow or unavailable for a time. Thanks for understanding.

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